Bharti Fulmali fifty sets up India Women’s warm-up win over West Indies

India began their Women’s T20 World Cup preparations the way they will have wanted, riding an unbeaten Bharti Fulmali fifty and a smart spell of spin to beat West Indies by 26 runs in a warm-up at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Monday. It was a controlled rather than spectacular afternoon, which is roughly what a side wants from a hit-out six days before the tournament starts.

Fulmali holds the innings together

Asked to bat first, India never quite cut loose but never lost their grip on the innings either. They posted 179 for 8, a total built around Fulmali, who finished unbeaten on 56 and gave the middle order the spine it needed after a few wickets fell in the middle overs. For a player who is one of four in India’s squad set for a maiden T20 World Cup, a calm half-century under grey Welsh skies is a useful first impression.

The rest of the top order got starts without going on with them, and India leaned on Fulmali to push the total past 175. On a surface that offered the bowlers a bit of grip, that proved more than enough.

Spin does the closing work

West Indies briefly threatened in their reply through Deandra Dottin, who top-scored with 49 and looked the one batter capable of dragging the chase back in her side’s favour. Once she fell, the innings drifted. India’s slow bowlers tightened the screw, and Shreyanka Patil (four for 36) and Radha Yadav (three for 25) shared seven wickets between them to leave West Indies stranded on 153 for 8.

That is the part of the performance Harmanpreet Kaur will have noted most. India’s batting depth is rarely in question; it is the bowling, and the spinners in particular, that tends to decide how far they go in these tournaments. Patil and Yadav choking the middle overs is exactly the template India will want to repeat at Edgbaston.

A week to fine-tune before Pakistan

India have one more warm-up to go, against hosts England in Derby on Wednesday, before the tournament proper. Their campaign opens against Pakistan at Edgbaston on June 14, a fixture that always carries an edge of its own regardless of form lines, and they sit in Group A alongside Australia, South Africa, Bangladesh and the Netherlands.

None of the runs or wickets from a warm-up count for anything once the group stage begins, but the patterns do. A settled total, a fifty for a newcomer, and the spinners doing the strangling is about as encouraging a first outing as Harmanpreet’s side could have scripted. The real test arrives in Birmingham next weekend.

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